After only six months of serving the state of Texas as a Senator, Ted Cruz is making it clear that his political ambitions go beyond the Lone Star State.
Cruz spoke at a dinner thrown by the Republican Party in the early primary state of South Carolina on Friday, leading many to speculate that he'll make a run for the White House in 2016.
According to the Washington Post, Cruz spent much of the speech attacking President Barack Obama's recent efforts to expand gun control laws, saying that the administration was "pushing an agenda aggressively to come after our Constitutional right to bear arms."
Cruz would go on to thank the crowd for their part in making sure gun control efforts were defeated.
"The men and women in this room began speaking up, began calling Washington, going online, going on Facebook, going on Twitter, and said, 'Go after the violent criminals, go after them with a ton of bricks, but protect the Constitutional rights of Americans," Cruz said.
South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly liked what he heard from the Senator's speech and expressed hope that he would run for president.
"Not to put any pressure on you, but we have high expectations and we do expect you back in the state," Connelly said.
His appearance in South Carolina was the second major event of the day for Cruz, earlier he had spoken in Houston at the NRA convention. In front of the gun lobby and its supporters Cruz issued a challenge to Vice President Biden to debate about gun control.
"I would like to invite the vice president to engage in an hour-long conversation and debate: 'How do we stop crime?'" Cruz said. "If Vice President Biden really believes the facts are on his side and this is not an exercise in political power, I would think he would welcome the opportunity to talk about the sources of violent crime and how we can do everything we can to stop it."
While Cruz has yet to make any sort of formal declaration of intent to run for president other within his party support the idea. Jim DeMint, the former Senator from South Carolina who recently resigned, spoke very highly of Cruz calling him, "One of the strongest Republicans in the country right now."
"I've been in 25 cities in the last few months , all I have to do is mention Ted Cruz's name, and they stand up and cheer," DeMint said. "They're hungry for someone who is not afraid, will to stand up and try to change the status quo."
